1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a cleaning tool for cleaning a connection end surface of a ferrule attached to an optical connector, and more specifically relates to, for example, a cleaning tool for an optical connector which cleans an end surface of a ferrule of an optical connector fixed to a substrate such as a backplane stored in optical transmission equipment.
2. Description of Related Art
In one method of connecting optical fibers, optical fibers are connected via an optical connector. In the optical connector connection in which optical fibers are connected via an optical connector, end surfaces of the optical fibers are directly and physically brought into contact with each other so that optical connection is obtained.
For this reason, when dust, etc. adhere to between the end surfaces of the optical fibers to be connected, defective connection is increased, namely, an optical connecting characteristic is deteriorated remarkably. Therefore, prior to the connection of the optical connector, the end surface of the ferrule of the optical connector to which the optical fibers are fixed is cleaned manually by using a cleaning member such as cleaning paper, and then the optical connectors are connected to each other.
In the case where the connection of the optical connectors is of a small scale, the aforementioned manual cleaning is not difficult, but in recent years, according to the development of optical information networks, peripheral equipment including optical connecting sections have become large in scale and high in density.
Meanwhile, the optical connectors have multifibers and have become high in density, so for example, the optical connectors have been used by mounting them to substrates such as printed panels, and integrating them in optical transmission equipments.
For example, FIG. 7 is a perspective view showing one example where the optical connectors are fixed to a substrate such as a printed panel and used in the optical transmission equipment.
Multifiber optical connector plugs 41 and 42 connected to each other have ferrules 41a and 42a and ribbon fibers 41b and 42b having a plurality of optical fibers (not shown), and the respective optical fibers are exposed on the connection end surfaces of the ferrules 41a and 42a.
A backplane 40 is packaged in the optical transmission equipment, and a housing 43 of the multifiber optical connector plug 41 is mounted to the backplane 40. The housings 43 whose number is the same as the multifiber connector plugs 41 are mounted, but in FIG. 7, in order to avoid complication of the drawing and to illustrate easily, only one housing is shown.
Meanwhile, a housing 45 of the multifiber optical connector plug 42 connected to the side edge is mounted to a printed board 44.
When the multifiber optical connector plug 41 is connected to the multifiber optical connector plug 42, the multifiber optical connector plug 41 is inserted into the housing 43 of the backplane 40, and the multifiber optical connector plug 42 is inserted into the housing 45 of the printed board 44. Then, the housing 43 and the housing 45 are fitted into each other so that the multifiber optical connector plugs 41 and 42 are connected to each other.
Prior to this connection, the connection end surfaces of the ferrules 41a and 42a of the multifiber optical connector plug 41 and the multifiber optical connector plug 42 are cleaned.
As mentioned above, for example, when the ferrule end surfaces of a plurality of the optical connectors fixed to the substrate such as a panel in the optical transmission equipment are cleaned, it is difficult to clean them one by one manually by inserting a hand with a cleaning member such as cleaning paper into the equipment in a conventional manner, and thus this is a troublesome process.